MURFREESBORO — City Attorney Susan McGannon will complete her 23-career with the government at the beginning of November.

She will be able to spend a few days preparing her successor Craig Tindall when he starts work Oct. 26.

McGannon agreed to respond through email to questions from The Daily News Journal about her career:

Q: Looking back on your career as the city attorney and with the city attorney's office, what would you consider to be your most important accomplishments and why?

McGannon: It has been important to be able to build strong, trusting relationships with the different mayors, council members and city managers with whom I have served; without their confidence in my expertise and judgment, it would have been difficult to accomplish anything else.

I also take pride in the fact that the city has not experienced destructive and expensive litigation to the same extent as many other cities of our size and complexity. While this primarily results from the good work of the city as a whole, I think my legal work and that of my lawyers has played an important part in anticipating and then eliminating or reducing risks through policies and contracts, and through handling problems appropriately when they have arisen.

I also feel a sense of accomplishment when I look at so many physical changes to the city in which I have played a role, particularly the Gateway area. I was involved in the sale of the land to the hospital, the development of the Oaks, the covenants and zoning for the area, the construction contracts for Medical Center Parkway, the negotiations for the Embassy (Suites) Hotel and a variety of related legal issues.

Q: If you could have done anything different as the city attorney, what would that be and why would you have done it differently?

McGannon: I don’t know that I would have done much differently on substantive legal issues. In common with other managers, in hindsight, I sometimes feel I gave the wrong priority to the urgent over matters of long-term importance. I wish that I liked and was better at technology usage. While I still doubt that the legal department needs a Facebook page, I think I could have used technology more effectively to standardize and track more of our routine work. I think I have been too conservative in my staffing requests; as I told the council in May, I think we probably need another lawyer based on our volume of work.

Q: What has been the most rewarding for you in serving as the city attorney and why?

McGannon: It has been very significant to me to be part of multiple long-term, big impact projects (e.g., the Gateway, Water and Sewer Department expansions, MTSU partnerships) from conceptualization through utilization. I know that many of these projects will make a positive economic and quality of life difference for Murfreesboro citizens for years to come.

However, I think it has been most rewarding to have worked with my fellow department heads and my legal department colleagues. I was struck with the excellence I found when I came to the city from private practice 23 years ago. In the course of my law practice, I had worked with city and county officials from across the state; Murfreesboro’s were much better than average. The city still has top-notch people who work hard to make their area of responsibility, and the city, generally, the best it can be. Having respect for your coworkers has been essential to the teamwork that has been behind so many of the city’s past successes. While I won’t say I haven’t had any bad days as city attorney, working with people you like has made even the bad days bearable.

Q: What has been the most challenging part in serving as the city attorney and why?

McGannon: It has been challenging to try and stay on top of so many areas of the law. The Murfreesboro city attorney has responsibilities for multiple specialty areas; some lawyers spend all of their practice in just one of these, education law; electric, water, sewer or stormwater utility law; aviation law; employment law; contracts; municipal finance; land-use law; police liability; risk management, etc. I am proud that the team I have put together has been able to handle these areas without much resort to outside counsel and thus has saved the city many thousands of dollars.

Q: What is your opinion of the new annexation law that limits the ability of cities to annex property unless affected residents agree?

McGannon: I think it is flawed. I personally believe it does not correctly balance the interests of the individual and the interests of the community, The legislature previously passed a good law to make growth and annexation predictable by requiring a county to work with its cities and utilities to establish urban growth boundaries with a 20-year horizon. The city spent a lot of money on infrastructure in reliance on that law, and then they changed the rules. The true economic impact of the change in the law is as yet unknown, but I believe it will be negative and significant. Murfreesboro’s growth over the past decades would not have happened if this law was then in place.

There are also several inconsistencies and gaps in the new law that are and will pose practical problems totally apart from the policy change.

Q: What is the city’s best response to the annexation law?

McGannon: I think the city should work with those affected, including those working on economic development such as the Chamber of Commerce, home builders and other cities to share information about the law’s impacts in order to get the law improved by the legislature.

Q: What other advice do you have for the City Council and other members of the city government and the residents of the city?

McGannon: I encourage residents to become informed about their government and to take pride in it and/or their efforts to make it better. Coming to a council meeting is only one of them, but I always enjoy seeing the Scouts attend for their badges; I wish more adults did so. There are now so many easy and routine ways to learn what is going on. For those who are really curious, I hope the city is able to offer another Citizens Academy to go with the excellent academy programs offered by the Police and Fire & Rescue Departments. This is probably the League of Women Voters’ perspective coming out in me.

One of the things that is distinctive about Murfreesboro’s government is the number of citizen boards, commissions and committees. As the city grows, I hope the commitment to citizen stewardship does not change.

I don’t have any more advice I want to give the City Council or the other members of the government — other than what I may need to say at the few remaining upcoming meetings; I do want to use this opportunity to thank them for the honor and pleasure of working for and with them for Murfreesboro for so many years.

Q: What advice do you have for the next city attorney?

McGannon: On the first day I was city attorney, I told my staff that my goal was for all of us to do excellent work, ethically and efficiently, and to the extent we could, enjoyably. I still think those are worthy goals, but the new city attorney will make his own way. I am confident that he will work with the council and city manager using his own experiences and values and does not need my public input to do so successfully.

I do hope he learns to love and appreciate Tennessee and Murfreesboro as I have, as that will make the hard work easier.

Contact Scott Broden at 615-278-5158. Follow him on Twitter @ScottBroden.

Career: City attorney, Oct. 1, 2001 until Nov. 1, 2015; assistant city attorney, July 20, 1992, to Sept. 30, 2001; law partner at Stokes & Bartholomew P. A. in Nashville, 1981-1992 and associate at the firm, 1976-1981 (firm now named Adams and Reese LLP); general counsel for Tennessee Municipal League Risk Management Pool, 1986-1989; assistant to the editor for American Library Association, CORE Collection, in Boston, 1972-1973